The holiday time is a busy time for online shopping - but lurking online are scams, counterfeit products, and bots. In addition to supply chain problems and inflation, consumers this holiday season now face the scourge of ‘Grinch Bots.’ These bots keep tabs on thousands of retail web pages and immediately purchase the hottest items the second they restock.

In this webinar, we talked through tips on how to shop safely online this holiday and throughout the year! We also discussed common shopping scams that happen online, how to spot counterfeit products or sites, and legislation to prevent Grinch Bots from scoring the hottest deals.

Here are a few links and ideas to underscore the things we talked about during the workshop.  

• Report any phishing incident to the FTC at [email protected] and the Anti-Phishing Working Group at [email protected].
• Help us urge Congress to co-sponsor and pass the Stopping Grinch Bots Act 
• Support the INFORM act - a simple bill that would ensure shoppers can verify basic ID and contact information for third-party sellers of products online. 
• If you have a counterfeit product, you can file a complaint with your state consumer protection office; the link to yours at USA.gov. You can also report online vendor counterfeits to other federal regulators at STOPfakes.gov. 
• Report fraud, scams, or bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
• Learn a few tips and how you can level the buying field and take back your holiday shopping experience.